Solar and wind energy sites mapped globally for the first time

Researchers at the University of
Southampton have mapped the global locations of major renewable energy
sites, providing a valuable resource to help assess their potential
environmental impact.

Their study, published in the Nature journal Scientific Data,
shows where solar and wind farms are based around the world –
demonstrating both their infrastructure density in different regions and
approximate power output. It is the first ever global, open-access
dataset of wind and solar power generating sites.

The estimated
share of renewable energy in global electricity generation was more than
26 per cent by the end of 2018 and solar panels and wind turbines are
by far the biggest drivers of a rapid increase in renewables. Despite
this, until now, little has been known about the geographic spread of
wind and solar farms and very little accessible data exists.

Lead researcher and Southampton PhD student Sebastian Dunnett in
Biological Sciences explains: “While global land planners are promising
more of the planet’s limited space to wind and solar energy,
governments are struggling to maintain geospatial information on the
rapid expansion of renewables. Most existing studies use land
suitability and socioeconomic data to estimate the geographical spread
of such technologies, but we hope our study will provide more robust
publicly available data.”

While bringing many environmental benefits, solar and wind energy can
also have an adverse effect locally on ecology and wildlife. The
researchers hope that by accurately mapping the development of farms
they can provide an insight into the footprint of renewable energy on
vulnerable ecosystems and help planners assess such effects.

The
study authors used data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), an open-access,
collaborative global mapping project. They extracted grouped data
records tagged ‘solar’ or ‘wind’ and then cross-referenced these with
select national datasets in order to get a best estimate of power
capacity and create their own maps of solar and wind energy sites. The
data show Europe, North America and East Asia’s dominance of the
renewable energy sector, and results correlate extremely well with
official independent statistics of the renewable energy capacity of
countries.

Study supervisor, Professor Felix Eigenbrod
of Geography and Environmental Science at the Southampton comments:
“This study represents a real milestone in our understanding of where
the global green energy revolution is occurring. It should be an
invaluable resource for researchers for years to come, as we have
designed it so it can be updated with the latest information at any
point to allow for changes in what is a quickly expanding industry.”